Aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods for manufacturing a semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to a method for manufacturing a three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor device having three-dimensionally arranged memory cells.
Semiconductor devices are increasingly highly integrated to provide excellent performance and low manufacture costs. The integration density of semiconductor devices may affect the costs of the semiconductor devices, thereby resulting in demand for highly integrated semiconductor devices. The integration density of conventional two-dimensional (2D) or planar semiconductor devices may be mainly determined by an area where a unit memory cell occupies. Therefore, the integration density of the conventional 2D semiconductor devices may be greatly affected by a technique of forming fine patterns. However, since extremely high-priced apparatuses may be needed to form fine patterns, the integration density of 2D semiconductor devices continues to increase but is still limited.
Three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor devices have been developed to overcome the above limitations. However, a cost per bit of 3D semiconductor devices may be expensive as compared with that of 2D semiconductor devices, and thus it may be desirable to develop process techniques capable of reducing the cost per bit and of improving reliability.